


Waifs and Strays

by Goonlalagoon



Category: Leagues and Legends - E. Jade Lomax
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pretty much all fluff, Red is a mom friend, but very much hinted at and not actually stated, i love these two dorks, some mentions of homophobia/transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 13:43:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11715570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goonlalagoon/pseuds/Goonlalagoon
Summary: For some reason, the disgusting, battered couch Leaf insisted on keeping is occupied more often than it is not. Red is quietly horrified and has fond dreams of lopping the thing up for probably toxic firewood. Leaf looks at him like he just kicked a puppy whenever he suggests it. It’s a practiced look, and Red is almost certain his boyfriend is messing with him, but he doesn’t destroy the sofa anyway.





	Waifs and Strays

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt response from @lulla_lunekjaer for something with Red and Leaf. Turned out to be quite different from my usual Leagues and Legends fic, but it was fun!

For some reason, the disgusting, battered couch Leaf insisted on keeping is occupied more often than it is not. Red is quietly horrified and has fond dreams of lopping the thing up for probably toxic firewood. Leaf looks at him like he just kicked a puppy whenever he suggests it. It’s a practiced look, and Red is almost certain his boyfriend is messing with him, but he doesn’t destroy the sofa anyway.

When Kay has camped out on it for two nights, his previous accommodation trashed to rubble and the spare room already occupied by Grey when the warehouse empties out, he finds a neatly folded blanket and new pillows set out the next evening. The tatty blanket he had been using is drying on the pokey balcony, freshly washed. Red insists he takes the hedgewitch enchanted blanket and pillows with him when the Academy sorts out its additional accommodation a month later- a large, temporary block that Leaf is already betting will become permanent before they’re done drawing up the plans.

They invite the kid over for dinner at least once a week. Academy meals are good, for bulk food, but Red worries that Kay isn’t going to be eating his vegetables, and besides - the kid practically licks the bowl clean when he does the family fish stew, and that’s pretty gratifying.

Wren turns up one evening bearing two small children and a desperate gleam in her eye.  
“Just for this evening, I promise.” Elaine scribbles happily on scrap paper Leaf digs out from his desk, and over the walls when she runs out. Red doesn’t stop her because he’s busy walking in loops around the room, rocking the younger child to help him sleep. Leaf goes to bed early and wakes before dawn, ready for an early morning training session, and pauses in his way out. Red is asleep in the battered old sofa, two children curled up on his chest. He denies, furiously, that he got a wink of sleep, but somehow always ends up crashing in the sofa when they babysit. Leaf reassures Wren that they really don’t mind, and more evenings than not they have the kids over for an hour or so while their parents are at work.

A few weeks into helping out at the new Academy before the start of classes Kay falls into friendship with Tessa and Hansel, and when the two redheads appear at their table one Friday evening Red and Leaf spend the first half hour determinedly not seeing Jack in every cheerful Farris grin and sly aside. After the first half hour they’ve stopped working at it, because neither of these kids are Jack’s shadow. Leaf’s fingers are itching to write down the stories Tessa is spilling out, though, because Jack always did have a knack for not telling you much about his younger years, and that apparently includes not mentioning the time he accidentally put white pepper rather than sugar into his auntie’s tea - twice.

The first time after he’s back from the desert that Jack’s cousins turn down his offer of getting a meal in the nice, cheap little place that’s replaced Sally-Anne’s as his go to for meals, he is cheerfully offended. Leaf grins and shrugs, but Red fixes him with a serious look.  
“Jack. Hansel is a _sage_ , he forgets to eat if you give him a good book, and Tessa will eat nothing but sweets of you let her. Besides she had an essay due and she’s far too caught in the idea that if she’s got her cousin she doesn’t need books, and her grammar is frankly appalling, let alone her idea of a coherent argument. So in the interests of her not flunking out of her course I am proofreading her essay and giving her some pointers, so don’t you dare convince her to go somewhere else on Friday.” Jack blinks at him. Leaf tries and fails not to laugh.  
“Red - have, have you attempted to adopt my cousins? They have a pretty big family already.”

Red huffs.  
“It’s not _my_ fault Leaf collects waifs and strays. Now I have to go buy more apples - Alice doesn’t like green. Before you ask, Alice is _another_ of Leaf’s teenaged strays.” As he leaves Laney raises an eyebrow. Leaf sighs, resting his forehead on the table.  
“ _Once._ I invited Alice to stay over _once_ because she bust a foot at training and she lives alone, over the other side of Rivertown. Now Red sends her monthly care packages and has her over for dinner at least once a week.” Grey and Jack exchange surprised glances.  
“Huh.”  
“I thought Rupert sent those.” Laney frowns as Rupert shakes his head.  
“I’m not sure whether to be insulted that I don’t get care packages or flattered that Red thinks I’m capable of looking after myself.”  
“Flattered, please, for the sake of my boyfriend’s health.” Laney grins, sharp and dangerous, pleased. “You _are_ invited over to dinner next Thursday, though.”  
“So how many kids exactly _have_ you adopted, Leaf?” He holds up an admonishing finger.  
“Firstly, ignore Red. He always calls them my waifs and strays, but he’s the one who keeps inviting them back and planning their birthday parties. Secondly, please do not mention adoption _our house isn’t big enough and most of them already have families_.”

They both give guest lectures at the Academy, Red more often than Leaf, and somehow every time they always gain at least one kid along with their regulars to come over for supper. Over the vacation Kay and two of his friends camp out in their house, trying to sleep three on the sofa because there isn’t space in the spare room for all of them until Red rigs up a couple of hammocks. When questioned about it, Red smiles fondly and says he reckons it does them good to be out of the Academy for a couple of weeks, and Leaf remembers that he couldn’t really go home during their studies himself. He asks about it when the kids are back at school, and Red falls asleep on the despised couch talking about his seemingly endless list of seafaring relatives. Leaf drags a blanket over both of them and dozes off too, wondering if he can convince Red they’ll survive if he takes a month out to go get his sea legs back and eat his uncle’s cooking.

One of the beloved colourful shutters comes off in a storm that floods their street, and Leaf wakes to find Kay, Alice and a few other kids from the Academy or Rivertown standing in a raft outside hammering it back on. Red takes one look at the raft and groans, calling for them all to get inside before it disintegrates, and shows them how to build something more seaworthy. Leaf laughs as the Rivertown locals tease him about the difference between a _river_ and the _sea_ , _honestly_.

Sez starts casually mentioning kids who could do with a safe place to crash overnight or for a few days, and it becomes normal to get knocks on the door late at night and find a kid on the doorstep clutching a bit of cloth tied into a fancy sailor’s knot, stammering out they were told they’d be safe here. Most of them come back to visit at least once, or send letters from wherever they wind up settling down. Leaf recruits Weeds to help transport them if needed, following invitations from wider family or friends, or Red’s carefully tracked down sanctuaries, jobs and safer spaces. Jill takes to popping around to chat cheerfully and openly to some of their visitors too, advice and encouragement. Leaf starts up an extra evening class in self defence aimed at kids younger than his usual Academy-or-close age group, invests in piles of blankets and pillows from the hedge witches who’ve forcibly taken Grey under their collective wing, and collects outgrown clothes in a hamper to redistribute as needed.

After they’ve been living together for six months they _officially_ adopt one of the kids who hangs out around the police academy for safety, a sweet kid called Clemmie who lost their dad in the battle for Rivertown. For a week after they sign the papers, Leaf gets a variant of "but I’M still the favourite child, right?” at least once a day and discovers that half of the Academy thought he actually was Kay’s dad. Kay just grins and passes on the congratulations on his new baby sibling with endless, entertained precision. Leaf sighs and puts the ridiculous card Jack, George and Laney made them up on the mantelpiece, amused and resigned to just going with the flow.

He only starts to worry when Red starts sending care packages to the orphanage.


End file.
